the balance of power i'll be looking at this evening. senate, house, will they stay the way they are now or change? bill: it's going to be a great night, fascinating every time. 6:00 eastern time is when we start. have a great day. "happening now" starts right now. martha: we'll see you then. jon: we begin with brand-new stories and breaking news. jenna: it's up to you today, voters making their voices heard across the country deciding who will lead us for the next four years, it's a big decision. president obama making an emotional, final pitch last night in the state that launched him on the road to the white house in 2008. which way will iowa go this time around? what does that mean for the race overall? we are going to talk about that. plus can't forget this one, the big battleground state of ohio, which could decide this presidential election. governor romney making his final appeal to ohio voters in just about 40 minutes, it's all happening now.

speaking of what's happening now. democracy is happening now, right? jon: it sure is all across the country. jenna: did you vote yet. jon: i did not. i'm going to do it after the show today. jenna: just making sure. you get a pass for that. we are glad you're with us, everybody, on this very important election day, 2012. we've heard just about everything, right, up until this point. today we are going to hear more from governor romney. the president potentially, although he's going to keep things kind of quiet in chicago where he's waiting and watching for the poll results as really we all are, and the american voter, that is someone we'll be talking about today, which means we're talking about you. hi, everybody, i'm jenna lee. jon: i'm jon scott. the president is going to play a little basketball today. the most expensive presidential showdown in u.s. history, a contest many polls shows is just too close to call. both governor romney and president obama already have cast their votes, the governor

earlier this morning in bellemont, massachusetts, the president nearly two weeks ago in chicago, early voting there. both men seeming confident about their chances for victory. >> let's remind the world just why it is the united states of america is the greatest nation on earth. i love you. let's go vote. [cheers and applause] >> let's keep moving forward. god bless you, and god bless the united states of america. >> your primary vote put me on the path to win the republican nomination. [cheers and applause] >> and tomorrow your votes and work right here in new hampshire will help me become the next president of the united states. [cheers and applause] jon: fox news contributor karl rove is a former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to president george w. bush. you had a couple of tense election nights in the white house, or pre white house in 2000 and also again in 2004.

what do you think this time around? >> it's going to be very tight. i would hate to be sitting in boston or chicago, because it's going to be a very, very long, long day for them and a long night as well. jon: what are you going to be looking for first? >> first -- as the early states come in, indiana and kentucky i'm going to be looking from the swing from where obama was four years ago to where he is today. the first important state is going to be virginia. the problem is we'll get some smaller county in toto early but some of the bigger jurisdiction -rs going to take a longtime to come in. i'm going to be looking for the counties, prince william and loudon. i'm going to be looking for african-american turn out in petersburg in what is called the south side and i'm going to be looking to compare in the heartland and the anti-obama coal country, i'll be looking for the difference between 08 and this year for president obama and romney vs. mccain.

jon: the polling seems this is a tie. from what you're saying you seem to be saying that as well. >> i think it is up for grabs. we have a lot of confusing information out. abc "washington post" has a 3-point lead for obama but a six more point democrats sampled than republicans. cnn had a tie and an 11-point more democrat. it was a 7-point more democrat than republican in 2008, cnn had it at 11 points and had it at a tie. we have too many polls, the precision they don't have, i'm a numbers guy. i like to see the votes. we know that president obama's margin has declined. if you take a look at the states, the battleground states where there's partisan registration, so you can actually track who is it who is voting early or applying for an

absentee ballot. the democrats had a 11-point margin four juror four years ago, it's 5.5 today. 340,000 democrats voted early than republicans four years ago. they this year about 105 more democrats have turned out than republicans, which points to a very, very, very tight night. jon: as you well know these elections are won in the middle, democrats largely vote for their candidates, republicans largely vote for their candidate, and it's the independent voter that you have to convince t swing over to your side. where do you see the independent voter go. >> that's the good news for governor romney. in virtually awful these national polls and even in some of these critical battleground states, three out of every four polls in the state of ohio

governor romney has been leading among independents. nationwide virtually every poll governor romney has about been winning against president obama. if he's leading by one point and he's been leading by an average of seven, it shifts the election. again the biggest component here is what does the matrix of the election look like? demographically the obama campaign is counting on white turn out dropping from 74% of the total in 2008 to 72%. as recently as 2004 it was 77% and indications are it's going to be a bigger percentage this time around than last. what is the political matrix? last name around it was 7 or 8 points for democrats depending on which version of the exit polls you looked at. gallup a week ago friday in a footnote at the bottom of its daily tracking poll says we've looked at all of our polling from october 1 to october 28th and we predict that the election threat will be one point more republican than democrat, which is a 7 or 8 point shift from

where it was in 2008. >> brit hume who we will be talking to later said you can't have these national polls tied at 49-49, and that's pretty much where they are and yet the battleground state polls say that it's 49-43, president over governor romney. >> that's right. we've got conflicting numbers there. the usa today which has been doing their twinning state poll pointed out on friday 48-48 in the battleground states. remember, president obama won those states by 54-45. if it is a tie it shows a decline in the president's support, a growth in the republican support and it points again to a very close election. jon: does a tie go to the challenger? does the momentum in a race like this often go that way. >> it tends to. it's a little bit more complicated than that. the momentum at end matters. undie sideds tend to break against the challenger or sit

home. the challenger tends to have more enthusiasm among his supporters. all those things are true. again, we are talking about a very close race. last week, sandy, the fact we spent four or five days talking about sandy and not the election clearly aided president obama. the downside of it was as pictures came out about all the suffering people were going through the initial warm response was probably eroded away. you got a sense of that in a couple of tracking polls towards the end of the election. jon: what a time for a election after a storm like that. karl rove, nobody knows the numbers better. it's good to have you on. >> thanks, jon. martha: we are with the candidates until all the votes are counted today. fox team coverage from both campaign headquarters. wind tkal goler is with the president in the president's hometown of chicago where he will await the results. we'll begin with john roberts in boston where governor romney will be watch the returns with his family and his supporters as well. jon. >> reporter: good morning to you jenna. first he's got to come home. though. he's got up early, he has had a

busy job. first of all in bellemont, massachusetts voting at 8:45 this morning, along with wife ann telling reporters that he's feeling good, he's feeling particularly good about ohio, that is right before he got on the plane with his son tag and his grandson joseph in toe. this will be the 18th time he's been to ohio to get out the vote. why cleveland you say? if you take a look at cuyahoga county, almost all of president obama's winning margin came there cuyahoga county. governor romney knows there are more republicans they can get out to the polls. he's got to look at medina, la lake, to get the vote out. in his last campaign event, the rally in ohio yesterday in columbus he appealed to people to get out to the polls themselves and find five other people to get out to the polls. he drew sharp contrast between

his vision of america's future and the president's. >> he says it has to be this way. i say it can't stay this way. he's covering excuses. i'm offering a plan. [cheers and applause] >> i can't wait to get started. he's hoping we'll settle. but americans don't settle. we build, we aspire, we grow, we can do better, a better job, a better life for our kids, a bigger, better country. [cheers and applause] >> one group to pay attention to in ohio evangelical voters. 375,000 of them stayed home. there has been a massive operation to get gels ou evangelicals out to the polls. what everything-heard the enthusiasm among that group is up. compare 2012 to 2006 a romney adviser told me in 2006 in the off year elections in the congressional elections that they were out looking for voters

and they said, yeah we're find -lg them, there just aren't that many of them. contrast that with this year where they say we are finding though the voters and there are a lot more of them out there this time, jenna. jenna: we'll pay close attention to that. mitt romney expected to arrive in ohio about 30 minutes from now. we'll bring our viewers there when he does. thank you very much. we'll go from john in massachusetts out to chicago where the president is spending his day and wendell goler is standing by for us now. >> reporter: we think it's remarkable to each presidential campaign seems to start earlier than the one before but they also seem to go on longer. candidates didn't used to campaign on election today. as john roberts tells us mitt romney is making a couple of stops, and president obama visited a campaign office near his home in south side, chicago, stopping people on the street asking if they voted. he called several people on the phone urging them to go to the polls. yesterday in columbus, ohio that critical state he was joined by bruce springsteen and jay-z each of whom did a brief musical

set. jay-z sang i've got 99 problems and mitt ain't one. >> bruce springsteen made up this one he admits it's knots his best work. >> smiling joe biden brought the drama. fox news said he was smoking marijuana. forward and away we go. ♪ >> reporter: later in iowa mr. obama and first lady michelle thanked the state that really launched his presidential campaign when he won the caucuses in 2008. >> it's out of my hands now. it's in yours. all of it depends on what you do, when you step into that voting booth tomorrow it's just a remarkable thing the way our democracy works, and at a

certain point all this effort and all these campaign rallies, then it just comes down to each of us as citizens. >> reporter: this morning the president congratulated mitt romney on what he called a spirited campaign and thanked the american people whose decency and goodness is a source of great optimism. jenna: great wrap-up for us. great to know that bruce springsteen is such a great fan of fox news. didn't no that. jon: i think i could write better lyrics. jenna: i know you can sing. jon: i'll give it a try. i don't think he'll be calling me. i'll give it a try. take a live look at a polling station in ohio, the battle ground state expected to play a pivotal role in the presidential outcome. this looks suspiciously like tape. but i'm sure it's just into the fox news tape machines. we will tell you the early clues that will indicate who might win this critical state.

president obama getting emotional last night at his final presidential campaign rally in iowa. win or lose today, what will americans remember about this presidential first four years. juan williams joins us for a look back. [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop? campbell's has 24 new soups that will make it drop over, and over again. ♪ from jammin' jerk chicken,

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skwhro*pbz fox news alert. jon: fox news alert. traditionally candidates don't work on campaign day. president obama is at his chicago field headquarters. as you can see he's on the phone making calls especially to supporters in wisconsin. that tells you something about what the obama campaign feels about its prospects in wisconsin. the president there on the phone calling up supporters in wisconsin urging them to get out and do their part for his campaign. this is all just coming in to us now. we're going to cue up some of the presidential remarks and play them for you in just a bit.

>> you took this campaign and you made it your own, and you organized yourselves, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, county by county, starting a movement that spread across the country, a movement made up of young and old and rich and poor and black-and-white, latino, asian, native-american, gay, straight, democrats, republicans who believe we've all got something to contribute. jenna: the president making a final appeal to voters in the state that launched his successful run for the white house in 2008. win or lose today last night's event marked the final official campaign stop of the president's political career, although bill clinton has shown us something different, right, juan? you can get involved in politics in lots of different ways. >> you can do it, keep going, you have new life. jenna: a campaign event of that type. juan williams a fox news political analyst.

interesting to hear those words about the movement that the president was referencing in 2008. is that movement still with us, juan? >> on some levels it is. i think the movement, someone said to me the other day george mcgovern recently died and it looks like george mcgovern coalition is still behind barack obama. it didn't work for mcgovern. you have the growth in the latino population that could be decisive today. you'll have young people, the emergence of college-ed waited women as a force in american politics. that is the basic coalition behind president obama. i remember being back in iowa in 2008 for fox news and i would go out and look at some of the campaign events for barack obama and just be stunned at how much people in iowa, an overwhelmingly white state invested in him. they wanted to touch him, they were excited by his presence. when he defeated hillary clinton i remember being stunned, i

would never have guessed that that was possible for an african-american in iowa. he does have a very specialee lacing ship with that state. jenna: it's interesting to think back on 2008 and that moment in history that regardless of political party one can feel. >> for sure. jenna: something you're talking about now in iowa specifically, but really across the nation. it seemed different this time around. >> there is no question. jenna: how did it seem different to you? >> i think now the obama campaign is really about technology, outreach in a very specific targeted manner. they call it microtargeting. you just had karl rove on, he knows about this. you're identifying voters, going for our very likely voters, you make sure you reach them through facebook and tweeter and the like, and you tell them to go out and reach their friends and make sure they get to the polls, that is what is going on here as opposed to the national sensation, rock star sensation that surrounded barack obama in 2008, in terms of an

african-american, a sort of break through avalanche the bush years. that is not what is going on here. jenna: is that a bad thing? >> i think it's inevitable in some sense. it would be i think for president obama ideal if you can retain that sense of magic. what we want to hear from the president's perspective was a choice election, and what you wanted from mitt romney's perspective was a referendum election, a referendum on barack obama, on the economy and the like, and what president obama's team has done is i think very clearly made it into a choice election and they said the other guy is mitt romney and they have attempted to muddy him up. jenna: we'll see how effective it is as we get our early results tonight. great to have you on the set with you. we look forward to your observations during the day. >> i've been following you on twitter. jenna: jon doesn't by the way. jon: yes i handle her twitter account. we are taking a look at governor romney, his campaign plane just arrived in ohio.

it is not traditional for candidates to actually campaign on election day, but governor romney said this is the year to do it, he is there. you'll hear some remarks from him coming up.

jenna: "happening now" now election day. we want to give you from flavor from polling sites across the country. rick folbaum is watching that for us in our new york city newsroom. you are in the spirit. >> reporter: a little flavor from my friends at the fox news edge over here. they are all wearing these hats today, very patriotic. we love it when you send us pictures. this is part of the u report feature on foxnews.com. jennifer keller in gallon va galvanston, texas. all their polling machines have

problems. a lot of voters are leaving their place in line so they can get to work. something we will keep an eye on here. here is what it looked like a polling place in man in manhattan this morning. this shot sent to us by someone named jenna leave. wonder who that is. a simple message from these cute kids in the suburbs of new york city, okay those are actually my children. my wife and i are trying to teach them early on how important it is to have your voices heard on election day. send us your photos to foxnews.com/u report and i'll see if i can get my hands-on one of these hats for you if you're interested. jenna: i think it would look great on jon. it looks great on you. send us pictures. we will share the tweets and pictures throughout the day

today on the polling sites. rick you look great. jon: i'm game for a hat. ohio now, and a look at folks heading to the polls in the swing state with an incredible record of choosing the record in every white house for nearly 50 years. mike tobin is there, live in columbus for us now. mike. >> reporter: ever since kennedy. it's all exciting here in ohio now. everyone is pointing to it as the key battleground state. voters were lined up before the polls were open at 6:30 this morning and they streamed in as soon as the doors were open. after all the badgering from tv, phone calls and the door knocking there is no doubts in the minds of 8.5 million voters here in the buckeye state that their vote is important. >> it's organized and very coordinated. i was impressed. i moved fast. >> i like this, the hustle and bustle to get here makes me feel like i did something i guess. >> reporter: governor romney is

now on the ground in cleveland, 18 electoral votes up for grabs in ohio, this is his 18th visit. he's up in the cleveland area trying to woo voters in key precincts up around kaj a hoag georgia county. all of the volunteers that worked on the statewide, local elections and national elections have melted down into these ground-game behemoths tracking each and every voter in the buckeye state. if you don't vote early expect to be hounded. jon. jon: all right. it's coming down to the wire. are you making any predictions? i guess we won't put you on the spot. >> reporter: yeah i wouldn't bet the family cow on anything that is going to come out of ohio right now. jon: it's going to be fascinating. thanks very much. mike tobin. jenna: cleveland, ohio where we are expecting to see governor romney in a moment. remember he has live events, final day, election day, he'll be appearing in cleveland, ohio. as we get remarks from eupl we will bring yohim we will bring you back to him, a very

important swing state as we were just talking about. more election information ahead on "happening now." we'll be right back. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. diversification. choices. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. ishares. 9 out of 10 large, professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. introducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio. taefficient and low cost building blocks to help you keep more of what you earn. call your advisor. visit ishares.com. ishares. yeah, ishares. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus

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""tampa bay times"." you've covered elections in your day, what strikes you about this one. >> it's back to the ground game and a high turn out for both candidates, both romney and obama, the rain has moved through here. the weather is improving. this could be the first election in florida where we break the 9 million vote barrier. there's never been 9 million or more people vote in anee collection and the secretary of state here this morning predicted a record turn out because more than 4.5 million people have already voted. jenna: wow. >> about hatch the votes are in the bag so to speak. jenna: 9 million passing that mark would be significant, because we're talking so much about voter turn out. to you, what are you watching the rest of the day as to any indication about which way this state might go? >> well, yes, i'm watching a couple of places. hillsborough county. hillsboro to me is the biggest swing county in the biggest swing state. hillsboro has a little bit of everything, it's a county that i think mitt romney needs to have

a strong showing in if he's going to win this state. the recent polling by my newspaper "the "tampa bay times"" put mitt romney ahead by several percentage points, but, you know, it's in flux, and even senior republican operatives who have worked elections in this state for years know that almost every presidential election in florida is going to be close. jenna: i think that is the way it all seems to us up here in new york city as well. it's great to have you back on the program. thanks for all the time over the past several weeks in covering the election. >> jenna, thank you very much. jon: we are hours away from getting the first results in a white house race where the candidates are running neck-and-neck and a final push could make all the difference. let's take a fair & balanced approach to seeing who had the momentum leading up to election day. simon rosenberg is the president and founder of nbn and a former adviser to the clinton campaign. matt shlapp is a former director

under president bush. it's all about momentum. who has it. >> i think barack obama does. if you look at the polls the last few days it looks like there has been a slight shift to him. gallup, rasmussen, abc, washington post, pew all have the race moving three to four points in his direction. he was doing well in the electoral college. i think democrats are confident. turn out has been up today. feel like a lot of folks are voting which is good for the democrats, there's been a lot of early votes. we go into election day feeling good. jon: wait a minute i thought that traditionally republicans tend to turn out in bigger numbers on election day. matt, what about that, if turn out is big today is that good for democrats or republicans. >> i think you'll see a big get out the vote effort from republicans. i think we'll have great numbers. as a matter of fact even on the early vote, jon which democrats have tend towed dominate this republican team has really done a much better job having the democratic advantage in states like ohio. so i think what we're going to see today is a great republican turn out.

i think we can make it simple for your viewers. there's been a lot of talk about the polls and the numbers and the demographics and the samples. it's going to come down to ohio. x are goinwe are going to know whether or not each of these candidates get to the needed 270 when we see the returns in hao*eufz unless something different happens with republican flip in virginia, which we don't anticipate. jon: in florida, simon for instance the democratic advantage in early voting is supposed to be down 70% from 2008. that doesn't sound like, you know, an enthusiastic raring to go kind of party. >> but there has already been 4.5 million as you heard from your previous guest there's been recorder lee vote in florida, and they expect the highest vote ever in the history of florida today. i think a good turn out is good for the country. i think we'll win the election today and barack obama will get reelected but i think the good news is is that the reforms in

the electoral system that have allowed people to vote earlier than election day is working. people are voting in very large numbers. there is a high turn out today. i think it's good for the country waoefplt feel going into election day if bam pam was up a half a point, a point giving the superiority of our ground game, we would win this thing on the ground. today democrats feel good. jon: that's perhaps the key, matt. democrats say they have done a much better job, they have a better ground game. in places like ohio -p barack obambarack obama has more campaign offices ready to make phone calls and get people to the polls. what do you think? >> that is kind of a van a tee statistic. we can all run out there about how many poeud employees, or staff or offices. what it comes down to is the numbers and what the republican team has put together this cycle rivals what we did in 2004. simon and others were really complementary of the efforts in 2004. they have taken the numbers that obama put up on the early vote

in 2008 and more than halved them. the republicans and independents who are voting for mitt romney are less frequent voters and the democrat voters that are voting in the early voters are voters that vote every time. in other words they are getting their easy vote out where weiree getting the more difficult vote out. on election day we have a whole bank of voters that haven't voted already and that's why we'll see big numbers in the swing states like ohio. jon: two questions appease we are keeping it fair & balanced. thank you both. jenna: now this fox news alert out to chicago, the president making some phone calls at the chicago field office. we understand that he made about a half dozen calls to supporters and team leaders in wisconsin. as jon mentioned before a very important swing state. we'll have some sound from the president, some remarks he made at the campaign field office in chicago right after this quick break. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol

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jon: fox news alert. in what promises to be one of the most tight presidential races anyone any of us have ever seen both candidates are doing what they can on election day. here is president obama inside his chicago headquarters. we understand calls for support are going out to wisconsin. take a listen. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> the great thing about these campaigns is after all the tv ads and all the fundraising and all the debates, and all the electioneering it comes down to this. one day and these incredible sroebgs that ar folks who are working so hard.

i want to say thank you to the american people. jon: again that is president obama at his chicago headquarters, and, again, the phone calls he's been making we understand have largely been to supporters in wisconsin. jenna. jenna: that's what we've heard. apparently as you mentioned, jon he got in a basketball game earlier this morning in chicago. the president at the campaign headquarters there as we just saw. mitt romney is on that plane, about to step off. he has an event in ohio. moments ago we noticed something that we thought you'd also like to see as our viewers, because mitt romney's plane is not the only plane at the cleveland airport. it gets crowded out there in ohio. they have a lot of traffic. that is air force 2 by the way. that means vice president joe biden and his family apparently have also showed up at cleveland, ohio. tvd as to what we'll see from joe biden on his clan, but a lot has been made about governor romney appearing in ohio today. brit hume is standing by with

us. what do you make of all the traffic, if you will? >> reporter: everybody is doing everything that they can so that some days from now as they look back if the election is decided by some tiny margin somewhere, they won't have to say, oh, if we'd only sent the vice president to ohio when romney was there, and he was trying to suppress our turn out in that area around cleveland, cleveland and around it. they don't want to have any regrets. they've come this far. jenna: so why not. >> reporter: so why not, exactly. jenna: we were going to talk to you about conventional wisdom. what conventional wisdom tells but this election or maybe it doesn't. what was the first presidential election that you covered? >> reporter: 70 -- i was a reporter doing 72, but i actually covered the race in 76. jenna: when you look back at some of the races you've seen conventional wisdom versus unconventional whic wisdom which ends up turning out

right? >> reporter: the conventional which is come is often wrong but it can be very attractive looking without knowing the outcome. i'm thinking, for example the conventional wisdom has long been that it's extremely difficult to unseat an incumbent. but if you look at the last five elections in which an incumbent has been on the ballot the incumbent has lost twice. that's a significant number of times. it's not unheard of. incumbency is an advantage but it's also a burden if your record isn't that strong and president obama is running with the burden of a weak economy and other unmet promises. so it's a very mixed blessing if it's a blessing at all. i think in his case it's not -- you know, he's not going to do as well as he did four years ago when he was just an aspiring young challenger. jenna: we were talking about juan williams about the changes we've seen over the last four years. juan pointed out his campaign has been targeted to certain

groups of people rather than this big movement, quote unquote rock star status. i want to get your thoughts on whether that makes that election about small ideas, not big ideas like 2008 and what that really means for us the american people. >> reporter: here is looking at it from the obama side. he is basically campaigning with the burden i described, and so his team, and he and his team designed a campaign intended to get out every single voter they thought they could count on and they therefore did everything they could in the issues that affect those voters. obviously everybody is affected by the economy. so, an improving economy would have been the best possible thing but he didn't get that. what he did instead was to reach out to these different groups, with messages, and with certain acts, you know, he did something on immigration, for example, designed to appeal to hispanics and so on and that may work. it's a difficult way to do it, but, you know, they've been work

on this for a longtime. mitt romney in the meantime has got even to be the guy at the end at least that is talking about the bigger things, he's talking about the future of the country, he's talking about change, and obama used to be the change candidate. so the roles are to some extent reversed. jenna: going back on your experience covering different presidential campaigns, you'll be sitting and watching with with us tonight for our election special at 6:00pm, what have you learned over the years, are there any tips you can give us. >> reporter: be ware of the early exit poll numbers. they were terribly off in 2004. and i remember so vividly i was anchoring that night in 2004 and we went down to the meeting at 5:15 in the afternoon when the first cut of the exit polls had come in and we're all sitting around the table listening for john gorman who was the head of our polling operation at the time he looked at the exit poll numbers and said the undecideds have broken for john kerry and it looks like he won the

election. the sample looked hinkey. there were way more many women in proportion to men. we raised the questions. we saihe said if it evened out he will still win. he was wrong. i'm glad we didn't go too hard on that because we would have add egg on our faces. jenna: we want to keep everything accurate and sometimes patience is the best in this reporting. nice to have you. great to have you in new york by the way. >> reporter: thank you. jon: brit's line about the president running with a burden, that is really what it is, isn't it? it's good to have him up here because, well the presidential election attracts lots of dc's heavy hitters, brit included to new york. we'll take you behind the scenes and show you how all of these political pundits, experts, politicians and others are

gearing up for tonight. plus, pennsylvania, rich in electoral votes, it could make all the difference tonight. an in-depth look at what has become a crucial swing state. en. i had three kids. and she became the full time mother of three. it was soccer, and ballet, and cheerleading, and baseball. those years were crazy. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. so, which supeast 4g lte service would yochoose, based on this chart ? don't rush into it, i'm not looking for the fastest answer. obviously verizon. okay, i have a different chart. going that way, does that make a difference ?

look at verizon. it's so much more than the other ones. so what if we just changed the format altogether ? isn't that the exact same thing ? it's pretty clear. still sticking with verizon. verizon. more 4g lte coverage than all other networks combined.

jon: right now governor romney is about three hours away from making his final campaign stop in pennsylvania. let's go inside this critical battleground state with somebody who has been following developments closely there throughout this presidential race. joining us on the phone, a washington correspondent for the alan town morning call. kolbe, an interesting point is that you haven't seen a lot of the negative ads on the air in pennsylvania. it might potentially be firth i will ground for governor romney

to change some minds because democrats and the obama campaign haven't really been blasting the air waves much there, have they. >> absolutely you're right. we started seeing ads in pennsylvania only in the last week of this election. it's not like ohio or virginia where they've been bombarded with negative ads about mitt romney. mitt romney and the superpac supporting him have control of most of the narrative on pennsylvania air waves in this last week as well. they've spent upwards of 15 million, while the obama campaign has used around 3 million tkhrafrpltz you're right. it's interesting that he's choosing pennsylvania as his last stop of the entire cycle. jon: right. democrats yesterday had former president clinton in pennsylvania. you don't do that if if you think that the state its absolutely in the bag. you send your resources to where they are badly needed. >> right. not only was former president clinton in pennsylvania he was in four places in pennsylvania.

he i saw him in montgomery county which is a suburb of philadelphia and he was rallying the crowd. they didn't send the president in, they didn't send obama, so they are concerned but maybe they don't think it's critical. jon: or maybe they think the former president has more appeal to pennsylvania voters, i'm not sure. i'll be asking former governor tom ridge about that coming up. colby, it's good to have you on and thanks for your help this campaign season. >> thank you so much. jenna: behind the scenes look for you now what is going on at fox headquarters here. a very big news day and a very big election night. rick will take us behind the scenes. did you sneak up on anybody? >> reporter: a few people actually. this is one of the fun things for us every election night. all of our d.c.-based colleagues hop into a rented minivan and drive north on i-95 until they get up here. they dump all their bags in the lobby on 6th avenue. take a look, these are some of the folks who don't usually roam

our halls or sit in the chairs in the hair and make up studio. we just had brit on our show a couple minutes ago. bret baier will anchor the show tonight with megyn kelly at 6:00pm. a brand-new set for tonight folks they'll get to see, juan williams was on the 12th floor looking at news, paperwork coming in. and then judge napolitano is based in new york. i'm not sure exactly why we have him as a part of this collage of folks. he's always here. look at the amount of books he has behind his desk there. they are all good house guests, jenna, they cleanup after themselves, they put their dirty dishes in the sink and head back down to d.c. what more could you ask for. jenna: thank goodness. if they didn't they'd never be asked back. thank you very much for that. judge napolitano does read a lot, that's why he does have those books. he will be joining us next hour, maybe you've seen it in your community, but a lot of folks are talking about problems at

polling centers, and we are going to ask him which one of these complaints really matters, how could that affect the outcome, when do you know that it's a really big deal that needs legal intervention. jon: let's hope this election is decided by the voters and not the lawyers. jenna: definitely well said. jon: you are inside election headquarters. the best political team coverage anywhere will be with you until the very end. what should we be looking out for as the early results come in. >> who is that guy walking behind -- that's kind of spooky, chris. >> what am i supposed to be doing here. jon: "fox news sunday," chris wallace joins us coming up. jenna: i like that, chris. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego.

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jenna: just about high noon here on the east coast, and voting is now underway in all 50 states. the polls just opening right now in hawaii, and the candidates are leaving really no stone unturned. they're not headed to hawaii today, jon, but they're still campaigning a lot trying to get that final push to get that final vote out, because every vote matters. jon: i'd like to be headed to hawaii, it's cold outside here in new york! jenna: we're glad you're with us, i'm jenna lee. jon: and i'm jon scott. the candidates have cast their own ballots, now it's up to all the rest of us. after campaigning for more than a year and spending billions of dollars in a hard-fought battle for the white house. president obama and his republican challenger, governor mitt romney, were in a virtual nationwide tie going into election day. voters, battered by a weak economy, facing a stark choice

between two fundamentally different visions of the country's future. chris wallace is the anchor of fox news sunday, he joins us now. you say both of these campaigns are convinced, excuse me, that they're going to win it? >> yeah, it was very interesting yesterday, and good morning -- or, i guess, good afternoon. jon: we're just past noon here on the east coast. >> we had off-the-record sessions with both the obama campaign in a conference call and with the romney campaign in a conference call yesterday, and what's so fascinating, usually you're able to pick up a little sense of exuberance on one side, a little sense of dejection on the other. jon: a little bluster maybe. >> right. no. i got bluster, but i got it on both sides. i think both sides genuinely believe they're going to win, and, you know, somebody's going to have, be right, and somebody's going to be wrong tomorrow, and we'll find out. jon: the question, i depress, is about the samples, the way the polling samples have been built. democrats think they're going to have another election similar to the one that propelled barack

obama into the white house last time. >> d plus 7. in 2008 obama won by seven points over mccain, and they're kind of counting on a turnout -- not in every state, but of a d plus 7. if it's plus 7 or plus, obama's going to win. if it's d plus 3 or a republican edge -- because they think they have an edge in independents -- then romney's going to win. it's so interesting, though, i've been reading these polls, and real clear politics which does a really good job, it's a web site, realclearpolitics.com, and they average all the recent polls, you look at ohio, and either obama wins, or it's a tie. but obama has a steady lead in ohio. it's not big, it's two or three points, but it's a steady lead. pennsylvania, it's all mixed up. i may be crazy, but i think romney has as good if not a better chance of winning pennsylvania than he does ohio, and guess what? pennsylvania has two more electoral votes than ohio does. jon: so pennsylvania could be this year's ohio potentially.

>> yeah. jon: what are you going to be looking for tonight? >> first of all, i've got the best job. i know everybody thinks they've got the best assignment, i really do. i'm going to be with joe trippi and karl rove, and it really makes you understand how little we know about politics, because they analyze it at a depth and a granularity that we don't. so they will be -- you know, i'll be with them and, basically, listening. but you look at not just early states, early reporting states, you'll be looking at early counties. jon right. >> prince william county and the excerpts of northern virginia. hamilton county, cuyahoga in ohio, you'll be looking at specific counties either to see if it's a democratic or republican county, are they getting the margins they need, or if it's a swing county that maybe went for bush in 2004 to obama in 2008, is it swinging back to the republicans or not in 2012. jon: well, you've got a lot of statistics in your head as well. >> i do. [laughter] jon: we'll let you go now so you can have a moment of accident --

>> very little zen today. jon: chris wallace from fox news sunday, thank you. >> my pleasure. jenna: just pass it on, we'll all take a dose of it. [laughter] including our viewers, i'm sure. we have a lot to get to. on cue voters in new hampshire first to vote today at midnight, and it's a tie, right? president obama and governor romney getting five votes each. very appropriate for what we've seen over the last couple of weeks, a very tight race. the granite state's four electoral votes are not discounted. they could, in new hampshire, the folks there decide it all. we have live team fox coverage from the battleground states, phil keating in florida, shannon bream in iowa, but first to molly line in manchester, new hampshire. molly? >> reporter: we're at the webster school, and as you can see behind me, long, long lines. this line goes to the back of the school i didn't mean phase yum, up -- gymnasium, and almost to the end of the block. it is a long line, and some of these folks are waiting longer

than an hour. the lucky letters are n-r, that's the short line here. across the state the secretary of state, bill gardener, is expecting big, big turnout. more than 720,000 voters are departmented to go to the polls, but the tea leaves are pretty tough to read here. they don't do the early voting we see in other states. you can, of course, cast an absentee ballot, but it's tough to get a read. we did have a chance to speak to some voters outside, and here's what they had to say. who are you voting for and why? >> mitt romney. i want a commander in chief, not a campaigner in chief. nothing's been done, nobody holds him accountable. i'm done. >> i voted for obama. that's all you wanted to know, right? >> reporter: and why? >> um, just because i like the man. i think he can do the rest of the job. >> reporter: interesting insight from the granite state

voters. another interesting part of what's happening here in new hampshire is just how enthusiastic people are about voting in general. the secretary of state expects that seven out of ten voters, about 70% of the people that are old enough to vote will actually vote. last time around in 2008, new hampshire was second in the nation for voter turnout only behind minnesota, and the numbers look like they're going to be big today. jenna? jenna: very important state, a hot spot, that's for sure, molly. we'll see you throughout the day in new hampshire. jon: both campaigns spending plenty of time and money fighting to win florida. the sunshine state once again a key battleground in this very tight presidential race. florida holds 29 electoral votes, that is more than 10% of the total 270 needed to win. who better than phil keating to bring us a report live from tampa? phil? >> reporter: hi, jon. both obama and romney have been fighting and battling and visiting the state of florida numerous times over the past several weeks and months. because for the romney campaign the 29 electoral college votes

are a must in his path to electoral college victory. the obama campaign wants to win in florida but feels it still can even if it does not win it. the lunch crowd starting to pick up here, earlier today, though, the lines were even longer as everyone showed up on their way to work. there have been some sporadic reports of some issues around the state of florida. west of us in pinellas county hundreds, if not thousands of robo calls went out this morning reminding voters they have until 7 p.m. tomorrow night to vote. not the case. 7 p.m. tonight is the deadline. in broward county, south florida, they've rejected 700 absentee ballots because those voters forgot to sign the back of their envelope as required. palm beach county had some scanners break down, that led to some longer lines as well as another precinct with printed ballots arriving late. in florida, though, bottom line this race remains tight. >> the economy has been really terrible the last four years, and i don't think anybody's better off, and i think he will

be great going forward. >> romney. >> romney. >> i voted for obama. i think he's done a great job over the last four years, he's had a lot of great improvements, and i look forward to four more years of increased improvement. >> reporter: those crazy lines of early voters we were showing you over the past several days especially in south florida are now gone. we are now going from 300 early voting sites statewide to more than 6,000. so the secretary of state's office does not expect to see such enormous lines today now that all of the voters are being spread out more thoroughly, and the reports from tallahassee are statewide they're hearing positive news. people are showing up, and things overall are going quite smoothly. back to you in new york. jon: is it true there will be no hanging chads this year in florida? >> reporter: well, that might be a metaphor for potential issues. there are thousands, at least hundreds of voter monitors from all kinds of groups, union groups as well as other

right-to-vote groups all monitoring these polls. but the law is only one monitor from each organization at each precinct, but there are certainly a lot of attorneys in the state. it all depends how close this vote goes in florida. if it's super, super tight, you can expect potentially the results to be contested, but if it's a large margin, as both campaigns are somewhat predicting, then that would be moot. jon: phil keating in tampa, florida, for us live. thank you. jenna: guess what, jon? jon: what? jenna: both campaigns are predicting victory. nd. jon: imagine that. jenna: governor romney's camp says republican turnout today is going to overcome all of that. we're going to talk to one of the president's top campaign advisers coming up, we'll see what stephanie cutter has to say about all of this. and we are america's election headquarters, the only place you need to be as the results start to come in. starting at 6 p.m. eastern time, complete coverage and analysis,

and rick is going to be here throughout the day all the way into late tonight covering this. right, rick? >> reporter: you too. jenna: that's right. >> reporter: so many of you are on your computers, your smartphones while you're watching tv, especially on election night, so we want to let you know that the best multiscreen experience to have on your tv and fox news mobile at foxnews.com you'll find realtime results at the web site, an interactive map that'll show the results as they come in, live video streams as well, and then beginning at 8 eastern join me, harris faulkner and jonathan hunt on foxnews.com live. you can live chat with thousands of other fox fans as the results are coming in all over the country. you, the viewers, are really the stars of that show. but i think jenna lee will be stopping by to join us for a bit. it's a big night, and fox has you covered on tv and online. we'll be right back. ♪ when you have diabetes...

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jon: a fox news alert, there they are. governor romney and his running mate, congressman paul ryan, emerging from the campaign plane. they are on the ground in cleveland off to do a little retail politicking, a little handshaking, probably at the street corner or maybe at the local mall. this is a last minute addition to their schedules, they decided, hey, why not? we've got the day, and not everybody will have voted by now, is why not get out there in cleveland and shake a few hands and try to convince folks that they should go over and join our side. that's what they're doing, and as jenna noted earlier, vice president joe biden landed his plane, air force two, right behind them. in fact, they're sitting on the tarmac just stepses apart from each other right now, the romney plane and the vice president's plane. so lots of high-level visits to cleveland, ohio. once again there's the image of the two planes. jenna: see? bipartisanship right there on the tarmac.

it's possible. jon: yeah. [laughter] and the taxi crew has given them fair and balanced placement so they can both get in the same shot. jenna: there you go. the president is in chicago visiting with his campaign staff, doing some staff as well. quite an emotional speech in iowa during what he called the final campaign speech of his life at least in this way. his campaign is issuing a release saying this. quote: we are winning in every battleground state among those who voted early by large margins in moat states. that leaves romney needing to make up significant ground in order to tie us. well, ed gillespie, a senior adviser to governor romney's campaign, is predicting a strong voter turnout today, and he believes that's going to put mitt romney, his candidate, on top. here's what he had to say earlier on fox. >> we see an advantage in intensity for republicans, self-identified republicans, and we think turnout is going to be strong. the most dangerous place to be

today will be to be between a republican and a voting booth. jenna: go try that out, jon. see what happens. in the meantime, i'm going to talk to stephanie cutter, president obama's deputy campaign manager. stephanie, first a question about vice president biden. mitt romney made this unplanned trip to ohio, we just learned about it yesterday during this show. what's the deal with joe biden going to ohio? why'd you decide to send him? >> well, just one last stop to make sure that everything is in order, everything is set. ohio, obviously, is incredibly important for either candidate's prospects, and we feel good about where we are. so the vice president wanted to make one last stop on his way to chicago, so it should be a pretty good event. jenna: and when did you decide to make that stop? >> when did we decide to make that stop? jenna: is this in reaction to mitt romney going, or did you decide to go regardless of that? >> we had decided a couple of days ago, but this is called an off-the-record stop so we don't

have to interrupt traffic, people trying to go vote. it's just a quick unplanned, unannounced stop to reach a couple of voters. so i wish i could see that picture of the two planes on the tarmac because that sums up what is going on today. everybody's competing for these last votes. jenna: and for those last few voters that you want to reach in ohio, where exactly is mr. biden going today? >> he's going to, um, a field office in cleveland, um, and just to touch base with our campaign workers, um, and make a couple of phone calls. so, you know, ohio, we fe about where we are in ohio. i heard you talking about early votes. we've banked a significant number of early votes in that state, and from what we hear turnout in cleveland is very high, so that's good news. jenna: here's what the republican party says about early voting, they say you went out and got quote-unquote easy

voters, and they would have voted anyway for the president. the republicans say their early voters are those tough voters that maybe weren't planning on, you know, weren't independents, for example. they got them to the polls early, and now they're going to get this huge turnout of republicans, and that's going to win. what do you say to that? >> well, it's not true. we have a specific program for early vote to go after those sporadic voters which means you probably didn't vote in the last election, you don't vote as often as maybe some other democrats or independents. so our early vote program was specifically targeted to go after those sporadic voters, and that's who we got in ohio, iowa, florida, north carolina, where we're really exceed anything that early vote. now, today is the day that traditional, regular democratic voters come out, and that's why i think we're seeing such a high turnout. jenna: let me ask you one final question. one of my jobs tonight is going to be doing all social media and twitter, find out what the campaign's doing, and last night you gave an interview that said

pennsylvania is tightening. and the republican national committee tweeted that out, and then you tweeted back to the republican national committee, good luck, and then they tweeted that out. and here's this whole thing going on on twitter. what do you really think about pennsylvania and where you are right now? is it tightening, or are republicans grasping? >> i think republicans are grasping. i said that the polls had tightened. i didn't want say that they were going to win it, and i didn't say that the election was tight there. they're not going to win pennsylvania. in fact, i just got off the phone with former governor rendell who is telling me about the turnout in philadelphia is and the philadelphia suburbs which is probably going to beat '08 levels. so, no, they're not going to win pennsylvania, and i think the fact that they are traveling there, trying to make a last ditch effort there, i do think that that is grasping. they don't have a route to 270. they're trying to create one now, and i don't think it's going to work for them. jenna: see, in the conversation all happened on twitter last night, jon, which is why you have to get on twitter with stephanie and me and everybody

else, because this is a whole conversation that's happening. we're going to be tracking it tonight. stephanie, it's great to have you on the program, and we look forward to having you back. >> thanks for having me. thank you. jon: i'm thinking vice president biden looks out his window and said, hey, let's go down there and land in cleveland, shall we? well, as voters line up at polling places all across the country, we're going to take a close look at what's going on in two states that could play a big role in deciding who wins the white house. the latest from iowa and ohio, next. ♪

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jon: in iowa folks are lining up to cast their votes right now. the state that kicked off the primary season could play a key role in deciding this very tight presidential election. both campaigns fighting hard for iowa's six electoral votes.

they could play a pivotal role in determining who wins the white house. shannon bream is in des moines live for us now. shannon? >> reporter: well, jon, both campaigns made last minute stops here in iowa hoping to pull out the six electoral votes assigned to the hawkeye state. the secretary of state says, you know, early voting has been historic for them, some 673,000 ballots, they say that could be about 45% of the electorate here in iowa could be voting early. still a very steady stream here in des moines today. another thing the secretary of state is keeping an eye on are international poll watchers who have been reaching out saying they want to be here in the polling places in iowa. here's what he told them. >> we were very firm in letting everyone know that u.n. observers are not allowed at iowa polls. obviously, there's been a little bit of controversy. it's not something i thought i'd be talking about the week before the election, but my job is to enforce the law, and can that's what we're going to do.

>> reporter: iowa law does forbid those international poll monitors from being inside, and they will be arrested if that happens today in iowa. another thing to watch here is down ballot. there is a fight brewing about same-sex marriage. in 2009 the state supreme court legalized same-sex marriage, and that really motivated conservatives and evangelical christians here in iowa. they have successfully voted out three of the justices, today a fourth is on the ballot and also on the ballot, the state senate. it is narrowly controlled by democrats, conservatives are working hard to regain control of it so they can pass legislation regarding same-sex marriage. we talked to politics professor dennis goldfer from drake university about that. >> for the republicans, actually, i think the presence of this same-sex marriage issue in control of the iowa state senate and retention of an iowa supreme court justice, all those together provide coattails for mitt romney rather than the

other way around. >> reporter: so we'll have to wait and see if those folks are truly mobilized, that conservative faction here in iowa, to see which way the state ultimately goes. so far only minor problems reported with some electronic voting machines, that seems to have been ironed out. jon: just a reminder that all politics really is local, isn't it, shannon bream? thank you. jenna: from iowa to ohio now, the the buckeye state could be the battleground of all brat battlegrounds this year. no one has lost ohio and won the white house. but it has happened, john kennedy did it back in 1960. the state boasts 18 electoral votes, and both candidates have visited the state more than 20 times since april. joe barton joins us now on the phone. joe, let's talk a little bit about these two last minute visits, one by romney's team and one by biden, obviously, the president's team. what do you make of those last minute visits? >> well, you know, yesterday privately the obama campaign was

talking to me about how this is a sign of panic from the romney campaign, silly, those sorts of things, and lo and behold the vice president stops in the cleveland unannounced. you know, we've been talking all week about making moves from positions of strength, and you could say that the jeep ad that romney ran in ohio would not seem to have been run from a position of strength. this last second move makes you wonder on the obama campaign side if, um, some of the polling and some of the early vote numbers they thought may have skewed the election their way early on. jenna: do you think these appearances will make any sort of difference in the final hours of this election? >> well, i don't think so. i think it'll mess up traffic. [laughter] no, i mean, you know, it's funny, but it's true. jenna: no, absolutely. >> people are trying to get to the polls, and you've got two or

three motorcades zipping around up there. very interesting. you know, i mean, i've got some numbers in front of me. to me, this election in ohio comes down to cleveland which, of course, all three of them, that's where they are. jenna: right. >> northeast ohio, particularly cuyahoga county. in 2008 the early vote total was 266,053 ballots cast. entering some point yesterday, the total was 303,743. jenna: wow. >> so that would seem to be in the president's favor. that's his county up there, he kneads to win -- he needs to win big there, he usually does well. better than romney in early voting, polls suggested way more had voted for obama than romney. but there's another number that, or there's another factor to consider which is for the first time all 88 counties, so every

registered voter, was offered the chance to vote early through the mail. that was not the case in '08. so you're seeing a large number of votes cast in republican counties early that weren't cast in '08. so you take a look at that, and you say, okay, romney has clearly cut into obama's advantage in early voting, and republicans typically vote more on election day, and so obama's in trouble. and that may be true, but then you have to go back again and think, well, who has more of a reliable voting bloc in and numbers show us that traditionally republicans have a more, quote, reliable voting bloc. jenna: so whether conventional wisdom is true or not is going to be something we'll watch for tonight, whether or not the traditional information that we get out of ohio is something that we can rely on this time around, or if some of the factors that you're mentioning, joe, might sway things.

it's great to have you today. we appreciate the time, and we look forward to your reporting as well in the future. thank you. >> thanks for having me. jon: potential problems to tell you about in one key swing state after a member of the new black panthers appears at a polling station, the same site where there were charges of voter intimidation on election day four years ago. reaction coming up from the reverend jesse jackson. plus, pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes suddenly in play. we'll talk about that with former republican governor of pennsylvania tom ridge. [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop?

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jon: right now we're getting reports of activists standing guard at some polling places. it comes along with word that election monitors from both sides of the aisle are on high alert. reverend jesse jackson, civil rights pioneer and former presidential candidate joins us now live from columbus, ohio. these reports especially come out of philadelphia, reports what appear to be members of the new black panther party are standing guard outside of polling places. is that appropriate, reverend jaex son? >> as long as no one is electioneering within 100 feet and no complaints of intimidation there is nothing much you can do about. there are more concerns about the provisional balloting schemes. student i.d. schemes. old machines in cleveland and dayton not working. so i think so long as groups

stay within the law and carefully monitored it is all right. jon: we know what happened in 2008. i think we have some of the video that we shot back then, when, members of the new black panther party were standing guard. one of them holding a nightstick outside of a polling place in fill definitely. that just looks intimidating. this time around, we haven't seen any nightsticks, but, just raises a question, why do they need to be there? why do they feel the need to be there? >> well, maybe a lesson has been learned. the big issue here a million -- rolls was struck down. voter schemes, voter suppression, make it more difficult for seniors and students to vote. i might add those suppression schemes have become stimulus for people to vote in even greater numbers. not take any one group of one or two people and spread national fear. the electionally is going

well and we should not step away from that. jon: is voter intimidation a problem these days do you think? >> if there is a complaint someone who has been intimidated, that's a problem and it should be lodged. if someone is electioneering within a 100 feet, that is problem. if they're doing something illegal that is problem. if it is not illegal not something you can do about it in the name of free speech. jon: as a former presidential candidate yourself i know it is an exciting day for you. election day always very meaningful in this country. >> well let me say, what we're finding here so meaningful is that suppression has become stimulation. the name-calling ought to stop i about leadership. i think that people been in a kind of deep darkness and seeing light coming. there is massive voter turnout today. 35% early voting. i expect higher than usual voter turnout. we'll see what happens tonight when the votes close. jon: reverend jesse jackson

of rainbow/p.u.s.h. coalition. >> thank you, sir. jon: president obama won pennsylvania handily in 2008 but by his own campaign's admission this is different ballgame this time around, a much tighter race. former pennsylvania governor tom ridge is supporting governor romney. he campaigned with him last sunday in bucks county and with his running mate congressman paul ryan on saturday in harrisburg. governor tom ridge joins us now. pennsylvania, could it go romney. >> we're thinking red state finally. jon: really. >> it will obviously be a very close election but what we've been doing in the commonwealth of pennsylvania last couple months escape ad lot of people. that is voter outreach, voter contact by phone or mail. if you add what we did together in '04 and '08 we exceeded that number. frankly the message around energy independence, family sustaining jobs around coal and around natural gas is very appealing. that is one of the reasons governor romney is going

into southwestern pennsylvania, pittsburgh. those folks understand the future livelihood and opportunity associated with a president who wants a all-in energy policy rather than focusing on renewables that will come to the benefit of not only pennsylvania but the entire country. jon: i heard him mention coal in every stump speech he has given over the last weeks and months. that is pretty appealing to the folks in western pennsylvania. >> you have coal reserves in the northeast and southwest. you have the marcellus shale which is that natural gas find and it cuts right through diagonally in the state. it ends up in two corners of state where you have a lot of reagan democrats, very independent sympathying democrats and as they look at their future and their children's future. you have a president that really understood the value of taking advantage of the natural gifts we have with coal and natural gas is very appealing to them. they're a very patriotic state obviously that we all are, the less dependent on

foreign oil is and more turnout in collar counties, bucks, don't care for particular divisive nature of the president and class warfare. a lot of them have sons and daughters who graduated from college and who can't find jobs. there is intensity and excitement as evidenced by 30,000 people in 45 degree weather on sunday night we haven't seen in pennsylvania in a long, long time. jon: given what happened last time around that the democrats are taking pennsylvania for granted or have up until the last week or so? >> some of my friends in the democrat party thought they had a 7 or 9 percentage point lead. i shook my head, you may be right, knowing my folks on the ground, friends on the ground looking at some statehouse and state senate polls and some congressional polls where they throw in a romney-obama number, we knew, we've always thought it was just a couple points difference. we're grateful that the president, already elected him, governor romney and congressman ryan have spent

quite a bit of time there. obviously the ads are up and they are very effective. jon: pennsylvania governor, former governor, tom ridge. former homeland security secretary as well. the nation's first. thank you for joining us today. >> pleasure to be with you, jon. thank you. jenna: even before votes are cast today, legal battles are brewing across several key states. judge napolitano is here on why we could be in for a long vote count. he is next. [ snoring ] ♪ [ snoring ]

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we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. jenna: right now we're still hours away from the first results in the presidential race but some looming legal battles we're watching. they have been kind of cropping up well ahead of election day from democrats in florida suing to extend early voting to a potential dispute over provisional ballots in the battleground state of ohio, to voting machine irregularities reported in north carolina and colorado, two very important states. voters in new york and new jersey hit hard by hurricane sandy finding multiple obstacles in their way to voting. lawyers for both campaigns

apparently are staying very busy with all this going on. judge andrew napolitano is here. fox news senior fox news judicial analyst. judge, any of those things we just mentioned raise a red flag you think could present a big issue this election time? >> well all they can present a big issue, jenna. people could argue in new york and new jersey where the outcome for the presidential election is probably not in dispute. we didn't get a chance to vote. 25% of us didn't get a chance to vote. so give us a chance to vote on wednesday. state is without authority to do that, in the presidential election. they can let people vote on wednesday for other candidates but federal law requires all voting for president be concluded before midnight local time everywhere in the united states. so --. jenna: period, underscore that? >> correct. the governors and legislatures of the various states can not change that. on the other hand we had the incident that you addressed in the introduction to this segment. in florida, where lawyers sued the state of florida to allow the polls to stay open

later on early voting days, well that is easily within the discretion of the states. if you permit early voting and you're about to close at 11:00 and there is 500 people in line you should give them the right to vote. if it comes 8:00 tonight in new jersey when the polls close and there is 500 people in line, goes out the door and around the block, those people get to vote, even though they might not get in the building until 9:30. jenna: that is up for the state to say we're extending hours until 11.59 p.m.. >> yes. yes. jenna: as a judge watching elections though seems every year we get some of these problems that crop up. is this different? do you think you hear more this time around, less? how does it compare? >> tell what you is different this year, there are thousands of lawyers in the united states of america who are election law experts. now there was no such thing as an election law expert in 2000 when we had bush versus gore. since then law students are taught this in law school. they become lawyers and they become expert in the field. remember, we have 51

separate elections today. the 50 states and the district of columbia. looks like it is a national election but it is all these separate elections. in each one of the jurisdictions there are democratic lawyers and republicans lawyers champing at the bit to help bring about the outcome their party wants by using the courts to do so. this can only happen if there is a significant systemwide problem. if a large number of people are not permitted to vote, or, if a large number of people vote more than once, whichever the case may be this could get into the hands of a judge. you have an issue of impoundment. jenna: like a car. >> it is midnight and i don't feel like supervising counting votes now. i will lock them up to 8:00 in the morning resume counting then. whole country is on pins and needles. jenna: one scenario. did you vote already. >> we had first time early voting in new jersey and i voted on saturday and was happy to do so. jenna: lech checking the box legally. i have my eye on you.

>> you can have your eye on me all you want and vice versa. jenna: jon? jon: one person, one vote, that is how we elected leaders in this great democracy, right? maybe not so much when it comes to the white house. it is all about the electoral college votes and exactly how that works and why some folks propose we scrap that entire system. that's next. [ male announcer ] research suggests cell health plays a key role

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jon: we hear it from time to time but it bears repeating. it is not the popular vote that determines who wins the white house. it takes 270 electoral college votes to actually win the presidency. one of our viewers, hubert, sent us this tweet.

can you guys explain the electoral college? hubert, we'll explain it and tell you about a new movement to get rid of it all together. william la jeunesse is here to sort it out for us in this report. >> just moments ago i spoke with george w. bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president of the united states. >> reporter: could it happen again? one candidate wins the popular vote, the other, the electoral college. >> congratulations. >> it has happened four times in american history. it is going to happen a fifth time. is it this year? nobody knows. >> reporter: some national polls show governor romney could win the race but lose the election. >> the current system has the problem that the presidential campaign concentrates on only about 10 of the 50 states. it leaves four out of five americans out of the process of deciding who their president should be. >> reporter: dr. john keza leads an effort to eliminate the electoral college. >> say got 10 votes and sally got 15 votes, so sally

is the new class president. >> reporter: this ad by the national popular vote initiative underscores his point. >> we're using the electoral college system today, that means that sally doesn't win. >> reporter: in the last decade prominent democrats including barack obama favored scrapping the electoral college. >> yes or no, eliminate the electoral college, yes or no? >> yes. >> reporter: some republicans argued against it. imagine the irony if obama loses the popular vote but wins re-election. >> everybody will flip 180 degrees if this actually happens. that is democrats will say, that is the way the system works. you can't change the rules in the middle of the game. and republicans are going to say, without the popular vote, a president lacks legitimacy. jon: william la jeunesse reporting there. so far nine states have ratified the national popular vote bill. but for tonight it is still all about getting 270 electoral votes. jenna: the magic number. got that question on twitter by the way. that is the way we use twitter a lot on the show.

we like to hear what you have to say. questions that you have and answer them as best we can. we're teaming up with the folks at twitter tonight to give you another way to look at the election. what people are saying about voting battleground states and race overall. throughout the night twitter will keep track of breaking news, the polls, candidates and swing states. we'll offer that to you. here is a little bit of analysis to start out the day. activity around the election soared already. 14,600 tweets per minute, per anyone. -- minute. compare that earlier this week it was 1500 tweets per minute. we're already way surpassed that. 4.6 million election related tweets already today. remember on the debate we had 10 million on one debate today, the first debate. we're on our way to potentially breaking a record. the top topics on the twitter go to the economy. number one issue we've been hearing for the past year is topping twitter in trends followed by foreign policy, taxes energy and the environment as well as education.

that is the break down. when we looked a candidates mentioned on twitter, 42%arack a and joe biden. followed by no candidate at all. romney-ryan, then both campaigns. this is how it is breaking down. should mention on twitter, social media often skews younger. we offer that as a little fact about twitter and how we look at some of the information. we'll be monitoring some tweets from some of your favorite fox news personalities and political heavyweights as well. go to foxnews.com live for complete online coverage and social media coverage as well. by the way, jon, i follow our next guest on twitter. jon: excellent. jenna: he is very keyed into happening in virginia. we can't forget that very important state. jon: that's why we're going to talk to him. jenna, thank you. get to the presidential race in virginia. in 2008, president obama became the first democrat to take the state in 44 years. it has been a neck-and-neck race for the state's 13 electoral votes. the president held a sizable lead in virginia until his poor performance in the first debate.

governor romney narrowed the gap. julian walker joins us on the phone from richmond. he is a writer for the virginian pilot newspaper. julian, both campaigns say virginia will go their way. obviously somebody's wrong. are you making a guess, a prediction? >> no, no prediction yet but certainly i can offer some observations on the ground. we've seen very long lines in virginia at polling places across the state. so clearly anticipation, excitement, activity is up at polling places. which campaign that bodes well for, it remains to be seen. the obama folks hopes that their ground game is more established and more developed than it was in 2008. republicans in turn in the romney camp says their voter turnout models show they are surging with the voters they think are key to bring them electoral victory. so we'll have to see in virginia. jon: do they have early voting in virginia? >> virginia has early voting but it is not like other states where no excuse early

voting. virginia just has absentee voting but for people who meet a list of qualifying reasons like, you're going to be away from your polling location on election day or you reside out of the country like someone living overseas or is a military service member. you have to meet one of the criteria in order to qualify for early absentee voting in virginia. jon: polls close at 7:00 p.m. what should we look for first? >> well you should look at a number of the bell with localities. some places like northern virginia, loudon county, prince william county. in richmond area look at chesterfield county. in the hampton roads area you should look at places like virginia beach and chesapeake. each of those places are kind of bellwethers where if the republican nominee, mitt romney is running well ahead, then that could be a good news for i will had. if barack obama is running ahead it could be good news for him. jon: julian walker, thanks for joining us. we'll be right back.

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